Please join me at a reception to support my friend Micah Lasher, Tuesday May 26, 6:00-7:30 PM. Micah is running for US Congress in District 12, with the support of retiring Representative Jerry Nadler.
I first heard Micah speak when he was running for Assembly District 69. A land economist myself, I thought, Wow, this guy really gets urban economics and policy! As I came to know Micah, I discovered that he was much more than a policy wonk, writing his brilliant Substack blog, “Into the Weeds.” Like his mentor Jerry Nadler, Micah is a professional politician in the best sense: personally unpretentious, deeply concerned with advancing the public interest, skilled in designing legislation and organizing support to get it passed. In short, he is a true leader.
In his energy, imagination and initiative, Micah reminds me a bit of my late husband, Tom Haines. In 1970, as a newly-tenured chemistry professor at City College of New York, age 37, Tom decided that CCNY should have a medical school to serve the Harlem neighborhood. A special kind of medical school, one like those outside US and Canada, which accept students straight from high school. Tom persuaded the new president of CCNY, Robert Marshak, and the rest is history. After a whirlwind of recruiting and fundraising, what is now the CUNY School of Medicine opened fall 1973.
Would that Tom were here now, to confront a rogue president and his swarm of grifters.
Fortunately, Micah is here now! He is the legislature’s most outspoken voice on using state power to respond to the Trump Administration and hold them accountable. He is leading the fight to allow New York to redraw its congressional lines after Texas’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting; he has also passed significant legislation on housing discrimination, consumer protection, and expanding wind and solar energy supply.
Micah has served as Policy Director for Governor Hochul and Chief of Staff in the New York State Attorney General’s Office. He has also served as Director of State Legislative Affairs for the City of New York under Mayor Mike Bloomberg and as an aide to Rep. Nadler. As such, he has played a key role in passing landmark laws to strengthen gun control, protect abortion access, and raise the minimum wage. He also designed a comprehensive package of legislation to expand housing supply in New York, which The New York Times called the “first serious attempt by a New York governor since the 1960s” to tackle the state’s massive housing shortage.
Friends sometimes ask me, why invest in a blue primary when there are so many key Red to Blue races across the nation? Answer: Because Micah is an extraordinary one-of-a kind leader. And because District 12 has a long history of great leaders like Jerry Nadler. We deserve a Representative like Micah.
